3 year old behavior

I can't believe I am just writing this post.  If you only knew how many times I thought to myself, "I need to get a picture of Cooper with his poster so I can blog about it."  And then how many nights I realized I forgot to get his picture with it!  And the post needs the pic.

How old is this?  2 months.  

Leading up to Cooper's 3rd birthday I had many seasoned moms tell me how the 3's were much harder than the 2's for them.  I didn't think the 2's were a walk in the park, not awful but I also have a very short memory :).  Now, I know all kids are different, but I am telling you, the day after his birthday it was like those dreaded 3's those moms were talking about snuck into his room while he was sleeping and seeped into his crevices.  He was not listening, testing me on ev.ery.thing., did I mention not listening?  He was spending lots of time in his bedroom and I was about to put in applications to head back to teaching...ok, not really but something had to change.  Cooper and I created his poster together one night, he helped pick the colors, I came up with the topics.  When he got stickers all the way across-he would get a special prize. My goal? That he would be motivated by the stickers, get back on track and we could get rid of this.  I just can't decide if I want to be rewarding him for things he should be doing anyway???  

Wow, I am really rambling now.  Ok-here's the verdict.  He was very motivated by the stickers, behavior dramatically improved (not close to perfect, but he's a toddler), and we slowly just stopped putting stickers up and he forgot about it.  Then Laney discovered it on the door and taking all the stickers off and bringing them to me became her favorite hobby when I was making dinner.  

There were lots more stickers before sister attacked :).

I am sure this is just the first of many versions of behavior charts in this house.